5.30.2012

the mandarin is indeed the supervillain in iron man 3

Some movie news... So last month, we heard that Ben Kingsley had joined the cast of Iron Man 3as the movie's villain. But according to sources close to the production, Sir Kingsley would not be playing Tony Stark's longtime archnemesis from the comic books, The Mandarin.

But hold up. Now we're hearing that The Mandarin will indeed be the superhero sequel's main bad guy, in some capacity. But probably not the classic evil yellow peril Fu Manchu version we know and love from the comic books. But you never know:

According to Latino Review, Ben Kingsley will play the Mandarin, but "he's more a veiled threat as a silent partner to Guy Pearce's [scientist] Aldrich Killian. Killian is the man inventing Extremis and putting it into his 'Extremis army' of multiple super-powered individuals." Those super-powered individuals could very well be Coldblood (Dale) and Firepower (Hamilton), who get their powers out of the Extremis project.

CBM reports, "Mandarin had a set of twins that did most of his dirty work for him. Another source who had visited EUE/Screen Gems Studios told us that the sets they were building included Chinese storefronts," but LR says that's "not exactly true." I trust Latino Review more than Comic Book Movie.

I never quite bought the studio's denials. You figure The Mandarin is such a major part of the Iron Man mythos, the character had to show up eventually. I guess it's a matter of seeing how they handle the modern Marvel movie version. More here: EXCLUSIVE! 'Iron Man 3? Villain Details.